The Hawker Siddeley Advanced Project Group’s (HSA APG) Type 1000 was a strong rival to Bristol’s studies for an SST. It was a 100 seat integrated wing project designed initially to cruise at Mach 2.2, though further studies went on to look at Mach 2.7. The HSA APG also looked at the transonicType 1011, a Mach 1.15 aircraft with 160 passengers. But Hawker’s main proposal was the Type 1000. Indeed, during 1960 the two main ‘contenders’ were the Bristol 198 and the HS 1000; RAE Farnborough and the Ministries undertook a detailed review of the two designs. However, by September 1961 it was decided that the Bristol 198 (or BAC 198 after the mergers) should continue scaled down as the BAC 223 looking much like Concorde, with four Olympus 593 engines.
    A key area was finding a ‘supersonic wing’, and the principal research was at RAE Farnborough by aerodynamicist Dietrich Küchemann, working closely with Johanna Weber. They had worked together at the German aerodynamics research institute at Göttingen during the war. They made major contributions to the advance of high speed aerodynamics and flight, in the fields of drag, swept and delta wings and fuselage design. In the slender delta wing the aerodynamicists found a shape that was not only ideally suited to economic supersonic cruise but also had a lifting capability at low speeds that far exceeded expectations. Another advantage was the magnitude of additional lift generated by the proximity of the ground during lift off and at touch down. Key was the generation of a stable system of leading edge vortices. The resulting Concorde wing was a subtle 3-dimensional shape. This field of aerodynamics was also the subject of researched in France at ONERA (Office National d’Etudes et Recherches Aérospatiales) and in America by NACA (the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics).
    There was also the kinetic heating problem to be solved. At Mach 2 the stagnation temperature increase is 175°C. Above 37,000ft in flight at Mach 2 temperatures on parts of the airframe could reach 120°C because of the low outside air temperatures. This was acceptable for certain aluminium alloys and required only relatively modest development work in terms of strength properties allied with a long service life. The UK’s High Duty Alloys undertook a major development programme to perfect an alloy called RR.58, which was used for most of Concorde’s airframe.
    Meanwhile France had also been working on SSTs and in 1958 Sud Ouest and Sud Aviation produced brochures, Sud‘s being called ‘Super Caravelle’. In May 1959 the STAé (the body responsible for coordinating all aeronautical study and research in France), ONERA (the French aerodynamic research establishment with numerous wind tunnels.)led by Philippe Poisson-Quinton and the manufacturers met to discuss the interest and possibilities for pursuing an SST. The eventual outcome was a 3-way design competition between Dassault, Nord and Sud.
    By April 1961 Sud Aviation’s Super Caravelle studies looked similar to the Bristol 223. It used four Rolls-Royce RB.169s to cruise at Mach 2.2 at 55,000ft carrying some 90 passengers.The Super Caravelle was first displayed publicly as a project at the May 1961 Paris Show. Meanwhile negotiations were ongoing between Britain and France for a joint programme, and in January 1962 the British Aircraft Corporation and Sud Aviation proposed a joint slender wing light alloy project designed to cruise at Mach 2.2 powered by four Bristol Siddeley Olympus 593s.
    On 29 November 1962, an agreement between the governments of France and Britain was signed by Britain’s Minister of Aviation, Julian Amery, and France’s Ambassador to the UK, Geoffroy de Courcel. A work share was agreed between BAC, Sud Aviation, Bristol Siddeley and SNECMA for the airframe and power plants with the systems provision shared between the two nations.
    The name Concord, or Concorde in French, was confirmed shortly after the agreement had been signed, but it was not until December 1967 that Concorde with an ‘e’ was officially adopted by the British. The word means ‘agreement or harmony or union between people or groups’ However, many in UK politics, the Treasury and in industry did not think the project was viable and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) also had concerns. Deeply involved in the Concorde negotiations were Sir George Edwards, managing director of BAC and Sud chairman and MD General André Puget. The chief designers were Archibald Russell at BAC Filton and Pierre Sartre at Sud Aviation, soon to become part of Aerospatiale.
    Tony went on describe important elements of the design and development programme including the certification of a slender delta without a definite stall - the zero rate of climb speed was used. The droop nose which protected the windscreen from kinetic heating at high speed and gave a satisfactory pilot view for landing was devised, as was fore-and-aft fuel transfer to maintain the correct centre of gravity to centre of pressure relationship at sub- and supersonic speeds. The variable intake was designed to feed the Olympus 593 engines with air at the required M 0.5 in flight at M 2.2 and also, by using spill doors, to cope with two engines on one side shutting down together. Noise at take-off and the sonic boom in cruising flight were unsolved problems which led to supersonic flight over land being prohibited thus adversely affecting Concorde’s commercial success.
    Several research aircraft were involved in the programme. In the UK the BAC.221, a Fairey FD 2 rebuilt with a slender delta wing, explored high speed handling while the slender delta HP.115 explored low speed handling. Vulcan XA903 flew with the Olympus 593 in an under-fuselage nacelle with a representative intake. In France a variable stability fly-by-wire Mirage IIIB was used to simulate Concorde flight characteristics and train the test pilots. Mirage IVs were used to simulate Concorde in civilian traffic patterns and to allow the test pilots to experience flying a large delta for prolonged periods close to M 2.
    Construction of the two Concorde prototypes began in April1965. The first flight of 001 (F-WTSS) by Aerospatiale Chief Test Pilot (CTP) Andre Turcat was on 2 March 1969 at Toulouse. The first flight of UK Concorde 002 (G-BSST) by BAC CTP Brian Trubshaw was on 9 April 1969 from Filton to Fairford, the base for the British flight test programme.
    Tony went on to cover other Concorde achievements but to see these and a much fuller exposition of the above summary visit the Association on-line video library. A link to the Video Libray can be obtained by emailing
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